Traditionally, wood has been the preferred material for athletic floors for indoor athletic venues such as gymnasiums, racquetball courts, and the like. The structure of such flooring systems can generally be described as having a base typically of concrete, a middle layer of structures typically referred to as a substructure, and a top surface of wood flooring. Just as the sophistication of athletics has grown over the years, so too has the design of these substructures for athletic floors, as the substructures of athletic floors contribute significantly to the physical properties of the finished athletic floor.
Further, athletic floors are frequently installed in venues that lack sufficient environmental controls. Maintaining air quality, such as air having a particular temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide content, for example, may be necessary to maintain stability in these athletic flooring systems. Many substructures include fixed sleepers that create a multiplicity of discrete air ducts beneath the top surface. To ventilate the flooring systems, an air mover that extends along one side of the flooring venue moves air through the discrete air ducts beneath the floor. To date, however, such flooring systems are unreliable because the air moved through these flooring systems may have qualities preferable to the air that is already present in the flooring systems. Moreover, properties of ambient air that is external to flooring systems can vary with the seasons, the weather, the time of day, or the number of people occupying a building.